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“I’m not,” Moe chirped from the door. “And Ellie isn’t. We’re quite nice.”
“Moe, shut it,” I hissed.
Delphy smirked. “Is the beaver a fashion statement too? Or is she a tooth fairy as well?”
I backed out of the door, and before I could come up with a witty and mean answer, Not Delphy waved her hand and the door slammed shut.
I considered blasting it open to deliver a scathing remark, but… that was what the old Alyssa, which was ironically, the younger Alyssa, would have done. And it would have ended with the cops being called here even faster.
So I clenched my fists in annoyance, pulled my magic under my skin like reabsorbing sweat, and turned my back to the motel door. We stood in a perfectly normal parking lot lit by an orangey streetlamp. Right in front of us was a large pickup truck stacked high with paint cans. Beyond, the motel sign flashed vacancy by a silent, dark road.
I sighed in relief. The real world.
But that was the only good news. We didn’t know where we were, we looked like escaped convicts, the cops would be after us for the prison break, and Juniper…
Juniper had mentioned being trapped and Free Jinx collapsing. Ninety-three people living in the bubble dimension. I had found the first couple dozen myself: locked in dungeons for using dark magic, sleeping on the street after their families threw them out for who they were, and hiding in forests after other supes ran them out of town.
I had promised each of them they would be safe in Free Jinx and that they could be themselves. They believed me. Soon, they started to rescue other misfit supes and bring them to their new home.
Their new family.
Now, they might be all gone.
I squeezed my eyes shut and took a deep breath. One of the men placed his hand on my lower back and I opened my eyes to see Moe’s worried expression.
“I can tell you a joke to cheer you up.”
I tried to smile to reassure him but couldn’t. He rubbed my back, and I leaned against him like a cat.
Jag glanced around the motel parking lot. “We have to find less obvious clothes before those witches call the cops.”
“They won’t,” Ram and I said at the same time. I shot him a glare, but he ignored it and kept talking.
“They’re hiding too. They won’t want the attention the police will bring. If this Clio could reasonably send convicts into a room past defensive wards, she could buy off cops or pose as one.”
Know-it-all, I thought. I wanted to explain everything.
“Can you open another portal to teleport us to a fancy department store for new clothes?” Moe said.
“No,” Jag and Elliot cried at the same time.
“We barely survived the first trip,” Elliot said, still holding Beverly against his chest.
“But we did survive,” Moe pointed out. “Alyssa won’t let anything happen to us. Right?”
My insides went all squishy, like my heart had turned into a big ol’ teddy bear, all soft and cuddly.
Ew.
I bet Moe’s not soft,my brain said.Eh? Eh?
Yes, I get it, shut up.
I squeezed Moe’s hand. “You’re right that I’ll protect you, and that’s why we’re walking.”
For now. Juniper said she was trapped somewhere, and since she had appeared through a portal before vanishing, she was probably in a bubble dimension. But Juniper could escape anything. If she was stuck, shit was very, very bad.
And I doubted I could fix it on my own.
